Got 10 Minutes to Spare?

It really is true, what they say. The mess will wait for you. In my case, my mess was especially patient and waited a full week and a half for me. I left my house with Rus and Beau on a Wednesday afternoon, returned on Saturday night for a short stop to relieve my Mom who had been oh so privileged to be able to watch Bekah and Jacob for me, and took off on Sunday morning with my mom and kids, leaving Rus behind, to head to Sierra Vista for a week. Then Rus flew in to Tucson on Friday morning, I picked him up and escorted him back to sunny SV, and then we drove back home to NM on Sunday. Anyone confused yet? The point is I've been gone for a week and a half and it feels like I've been gone forever. Cockroaches moved out of my dishwasher and onto my counter, a bold move that sent seven of them to their maker. My grass had the audacity to grow while we were gone and now it needs to be mowed again. If it all waited a week and a half it can wait another day, right?

So for the first part of my trip, Beau and I tagged along with Rus to Colorado for a business trip. We drove straight up to Denver and then took our time coming home, going on the back roads from Denver down to Pagosa Springs, and then down through Chama to Santa Fe. Check out how beautiful it was! I am convinced that right now is the best time to travel because the weather is great and everything is in wonderful color. That sea of gold is from the Aspens. So, so pretty. This next pic is from Fenton Lake in northern NM. I thought the mountains looked amazing.


Rus and I stopped and did a little hike down to the Chama river. Rus is blurry here because he kept making the bridge sway back and forth. The hike down to the river was really more like a thousand stairs. The creative little bugger who made the trail picked the steepest place and said, "Hey! Let's put some stairs here, just for fun!" My calves and quads weren't too appreciative. The second part of the trip was to Sierra Vista. My parents moved away from there five years ago, so I hadn't had a reason to go there really. Then they moved back there this past March and I've just finally gotten around to visiting them. I forgot how beautiful SV is. My mom and the kids and I went on a hike up in Ramsey canyon and we had a blast. Jacob kept finding bugs, like caterpillars and butterflies. They loved the little bridges that took them over the creek.


Awww...they look like they like each other! Actually Bekah and Jacob are really good friends. They slept in the same room for the whole week and they loved it. They'd lay in their beds and talk to each other until they fell asleep, and then in the morning I'd wake up to their little voices, deep in conversation. Here he is! Jacob, the next Karate Kid!


Here's all of us relaxing by the bird feeders. We did a wonderful job of being too loud and scaring all of the birds away. Sometimes pictures don't really tell the whole story. Jacob looks happy here, but he had just spent the last 15 minutes crying because he face planted it whilst trying to step off one of the bridges. I had just fed Beau, and then I think right after this pic he spit it all up. Bekah had just collected a bunch of acorns that were on the ground, successfully ruining the bird-watching experience of a few Germans that were sitting nearby. Then she found the feather and in between smiling for the camera she kept asking "Did you take a picture of my feather?" I started the hike off grumpy because my kids were, in my opinion, the most horrible listeners ever, but I think I got over it by the end of the hike.

Beau lookin' snazzy in his new shoes and navy socks. I've been meaning to post an update on Beau and his shoes, but I haven't had a chance. I got his new, custom fit Mitchell brace on the Tuesday before I left and it has been so, so much better than the first brace. He's wearing it the majority of the day, with maybe an hour or two brake every 24 hours. So I think we're doing pretty good! And he's happy!

Ummm...since this has turned into the longest post ever, I'll try to briefly sum up the rest of my trip...

1. We were able to meet up with Amy and her kids Andrew and Emily. She has a good pic of us on her blog. It was so fun to see her! I haven't seen her since my wedding, and now we both have kids, minivans, and an appreciation for mac and cheese!2. Since I had to go to Tucson to pick up Rus from the airport, I decided to go early and spend the night at my brother Tyler's house. I don't know why I didn't get a pic of Tyler with my kids (slacker!) but here is a funny one of Bekah getting stuck in a random bucket that Tyler had. She was screaming, "NO! Don't take a picture! It hurts! Help me!" Aren't I a wonderful mother?3. The kids and I went to the zoo in the morning before we got Rus. Bekah got drenched playing in this little water-spray area. Once again, pictures don't really tell the whole story. Sure, she's happy here, but the rest of the time she was driving me crazy, looking at each animal for point-three-five seconds and then yelling to go see something else. And then she complained about being wet, even though she'd just reassured me, saying, "It's okay mom. Clothes dry," in a very serious 30 year old voice. Jacob was able to very strategically get wet only between his legs, so for the rest of the morning he looked like he'd peed his pants and I looked like I'd let him pee his pants. By the time we'd wrapped up that fun adventure and had picked up Rus from the airport, I was one frazzled mess and Rus said in his soothing, talking-to-a-crazy-person voice "Maybe when we get to your mom's you can just drop us off and then go have some time to yourself." I loved him for that and hated myself for not being able to handle everything.4. Amy came to Sierra Vista too, with her kids while her husband was turkey hunting. My mom got a sitter for all of the kids except Beau and we (Mom, Dad, Amy, Rus, me, Beau) took off to Art in the Park, which incidentally is the number one reason (not including family) to ever visit Sierra Vista. It was so much fun and the vendors had some great stuff. One of my favorites was a carousel made out of two bike rims and spam cans. No, really I fell in love with several paintings, a beautiful purse, and numerous pieces of jewelry. I successfully walked away with only a baby blanket that was so, so cute I had to buy it even though it's really for a girl and Beau is obviously not a girl. Oh well, I'm a girl, so I can have a girly baby blanket if I want to. (Sorry, Beau.) I don't know how I only took this one picture. Beau enjoyed Art in the Park, too.And now despite this post being seriously, ridiculously long, I have to include these pictures because [insert very long, complicated explanation here], so just stop whining and enjoy. :)

Have a wonderful, terrific, yummy, stick-your-tongue-out sort of day!